Celtics: Keeping cool

Wednesday

Apr 30, 2008 at 12:01 AMApr 30, 2008 at 7:10 PM

All season, the Celtics have made it about them and not the opponent. They could be playing the Spurs, Pistons or scrimmaging Bentley College. If they did what they wanted to do - what they were positive they were capable of doing - everything would work out just fine. Showing no sign of concern after losing two straight games in Atlanta, that mindset held yesterday.

Scott Souza/Daily News staff

All season, the Celtics have made it about them and not the opponent.

They could be playing the Spurs, Pistons or scrimmaging Bentley College. If they did what they wanted to do - what they were positive they were capable of doing - everything would work out just fine.

Showing no sign of concern after losing two straight games in Atlanta, that mindset held yesterday as they returned to HealthPoint in preparation for tonight's Game 5 (TNT, CSN, 8:30 p.m.). There was little talk of adjustments, or much anxiety about the tide turning in the series, despite being knotted with a consensus first-round rollover at two games apiece.

On one hand, you could call it confidence. On the other, you could call it overconfidence from a team expecting the opposition to come crashing back down to the parquet after two games playing way over its head.

"I saw a lot of positive things, truthfully, besides the fact that we lost," Paul Pierce said after watching film of Game 4. "We saw a lot of good looks that we'll take. We will knock those looks down. We took one on the chin and I think at home we'll play better."

"There were a couple of bad bounces of the ball in their favor," offered Ray Allen. "The one thing that stood out the most is that Joe Johnson (34 points) got going in the fourth quarter (when he scored 20). It's just small things that we need to change up."

Allen noted that no team can be arrogant and think its opponent will lay down, yet the demeanor yesterday was that the Celtics will impose their will on the Hawks tonight. The team was full of credit for what the eighth-seeded Hawks were able to do in the two victories, but almost dismissal of their ability to keep it up.

"Our home court," said Perkins of what he expects to be different in Game 5. "Home court is key in the playoffs. This is my first time really realizing that. When you are home, it's a different type of atmosphere. A lot of those guys are feeding off their crowd. Before we played Game 3, Josh Smith hadn't hit one jump shot the whole series. Then we go to Atlanta and he is knocking down shots."

While being back in the friendly confines should help, the Celtics will have to do more than simply dress in front of their own lockers to stuff Johnson and Smith back into Pandora's Box. In the first two games, the pair combined to shoot 17-for-55 (29 percent). In the last two, they combined to go 40-for-75 (53 percent).

Through their effort and athleticism, they were able to create many more shots. Then the best defensive team in the NBA - with its Defensive Player of the Year in Kevin Garnett - was helpless to stop them at critical points in the games in Atlanta.

"Honestly, man, me and Kevin were talking about it," Perkins said. "When you are in a zone like that, there's not too many people who can stop you."

Though Perkins followed his oddly deferential statement by adding that the Celtics needed to play with more urgency when Johnson or Smith got the ball, Pierce confirmed that at least one adjustment that needs to be made is not allowing the duo to get the ball in the first place.

"We have to do a better job picking them up, putting more pressure on them, and taking them out of their comfort zone, taking the ball out of their hands," the captain said. "When we watched the tape, it clearly wasn't our defense allowing a guy to come down the middle without any help."

Celtics coach Doc Rivers, who scrambled to make lineup adjustments late in Game 4 just when Hawks coach Mike Woodson seemed to be perfecting his seven-player rotation, said Boston's focus has to be geared more toward the defensive end.

"We were hoping to make shots instead of forcing them to miss shots," he determined. "We have to get back to forcing them to miss shots. We've had 10-point leads all year where we've missed shots, then we came down and made stops."

The stop the Celtics now have to make now is a two-game losing streak. With momentum on the upstart Hawks' side, it will take more than just pregame fireworks and a boisterous crowd to get it done.

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